--- In DFAC-QN@yahoogroups.com, "twixcookie1" <twixcookie@...> wrote:
>
> Wow!
>

Not knowing the current funding status of the observatory since I
first relayed Steve Ostro's message here, I made a short visit today
to the Arecibo website. looks like funding is still an issue:

From a news media announcement during a Clinton visit:

The observatory's future has been in jeopardy since November 2006,
when the Senior Review, an advisory panel to the Division of
Astronomical Sciences at the NSF recommended that the facility's
operating funds be reduced to $8 million from $10.5 million over
three years and then halved to $4 million in 2011. If the observatory
fails to raise funds from external sources to make up the difference,
it will be forced to close.

"It is a terrific accomplishment that the federal government has
become so cognizant of the Senior Review and its potential
consequences for the Arecibo Observatory," said observatory director
Robert Kerr in an e-mail after the event. "It is not common that a
problem so relatively 'small' (a few million dollar budget gap)
receives such attention within the federal budget landscape. That can
only be positive for our funding challenge."

After a tour of the visitor center and a lesson in the telescope's
history and accomplishments, Clinton emphasized his wife's support
for reinvigorating federal funding for the sciences. He cited her
presentation of Senate Bill 2862, which -- with Puerto Rico Resident
Commissioner Luis Fortuño's H.R. 3737 -- seeks continued support for
the Arecibo Observatory from the NSF and NASA, as an example of her
commitment to scientific research and her recognition of the
importance of Arecibo to the scientific mission of the country.